To the Editor:
Eden Stiffman’s recent article “’It’s Hard to Hate Up Close’: Philanthropy, Polarization, and the Art of Conversation” (April 15) shares a great deal of important information about programs promoting one-on-one dialogue to bridge divides. But it left out a critical initiative that many bridge- and peace-building organizations are working on: establishing trust in elections.
The desire for fair and trustworthy elections spans the political spectrum. For example, one of the organizations mentioned in Stiffman’s article, Braver Angels, spent more than a year working with ideologically diverse groups of people to identify numerous points of agreement between conservatives and progressives about democracy and elections. These were distilled into three principles in the nonprofit’s recently released Trustworthy Elections Campaign report:
- “Voting should be easy. Cheating should be hard.”
- “Every citizen should have an equal say in who will govern them; this is done through free and fair elections.”
- “The American government will fail if candidates refuse to accept any outcome other than victory.”
Another organization, Convergence, created atemplate for local election officials to increase trust in elections. And Interfaith America developed a Faith in Elections Playbook to help faith and community leaders protect the 2024 election.
Living Room Conversations, which I co-founded, has free, open-source conversation guides to establish faith in elections at both a local and national level. It works with bridging organizations, schools, libraries, and clubs, trusting that local leaders know best how to handle these conversations in their communities, then inviting them to engage with other communities to build trust on a national scale.
We have seen what happens when trust in elections is undermined. These organizations, and others in the bridge-building community, have created resources to diminish the influence of conflict profiteers and work toward a stronger and more just democracy.
Polls show that record numbers of people are not happy with the current state of our democracy. Let’s do all we can to bring them together to solve the problem.
Joan Blades
Co-Founder
Living Room Conversations, MoveOn, and MomsRising